O Fantasma
International Arthouse
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1h 27m
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues | 87 mins | 2000
The rare film to be both feted by festival cognoscenti and uploaded to disreputable porn sites, Rodrigues’s confrontational, controversial debut feature heralded the arrival of a major queer artist. Concerning the carnal odyssey of a Lisbon trash collector (Ricardo Meneses) driven by the promise of the next hook-up, it’s an exhilarating dispatch from the city’s anonymous fringes, replete with unsimulated sex, latex-clad encounters, and a soundtrack comprised almost entirely of howling dogs.
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